Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We have to get it right conclusively. The more than 60 towns that Eircom will be targeting and the 50 towns that ESB, along with Vodafone, will be working with in the initial stages of the plan comprise large urban areas. In rural areas, somebody employed by, for example, Pramerica in Letterkenny should be able to work from home in Malin Head or Killybegs. That is the critical issue. The national broadband plan aims to address areas in which commercial companies are not interested. It is not commercially viable to go into these areas. A potential solution, as Deputy Pringle correctly noted, is to wrap fibre around the ESB network.

However, the Government is constrained in what it can do because of EU guidelines and state intervention rules. Most of these rural areas have wireless broadband, so there are competition issues in terms of whether the State can go in and compete with another provider. We must be very clear in what we are doing and we must be technology neutral. The Deputy is correct that a potential option is wrapping fibre around the ESB network. That network goes to Arranmore Island, Tory Island and other peripheral areas. There is also the Eircom network, however, and the question then is which one to choose. Where we are at in the process is ensuring we are proceeding on a legally sound basis to deliver broadband, finally and conclusively, to rural areas. That is the challenge we face.

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